"Welcome home young master!"
"We've heard you were planning for a study session?"
Right as we entered the huge door of riku'a house a bunch of yakuza welcomed us in line. It was a bit impressive for me, after all even if I've seen some before this was my first time seeing so many.
Becoming friends and getting close to Raku was indeed the right move for my own safety.
"Yes please make us some tea." Raku seemed very unbothered by that welcome and simply directed us towards a room in which a long table was placed.
It was funny to see the usually cowardly raku act so normally around so many yakuza.
We then all went around a big table and took a seat, I sat down in between Shuu and Kosaki, those were the people I was the closest to so I was more comfortable that way.
Soon after we started studying it ended up being very clear that the only two people who needed help here were Raku and Kosaki. Me and Ruri took care of helping Kosaki while Chitoge and Shuu were helping out Raku who was clearly shocked at how smart Chitoge was.
As usual in group study sessions after a bit of studying we all started getting distracted and had some small unrelated talks.
"By the way Kosaki do you have anyone you like?" Chitoge was the one who asked that dangerous question and made Kosaki's face turn fully red.
"Right now... I don't think so hahaha" Kosaki answered awkwardly while trying to look away.
"That's relatable, I also don't have anyone I like." Chitoge replied shocking everyone present.
Suddenly she realized what she said and tried to fix it up by acting all lovey dovey with each other, it was kind of funny at first but their acting skills are so bad that I had to find a way to save myself from the cringe.
"Hey Raku and Chitoge, nobody is around right now and we're between friends so what about trying to be honest with us?" I said with a smile which wasn't a smile. It was obvious to them that I realized it was fake.
"How? How did you realize?" Chitoge was the one who asked me that question surprised by how naturally I said it as if I knew for ages.
"Since the very beginning, it was obvious to me." I said while looking at Shu.
"Well yes I can't deny that, I also noticed since the very beginning but it was fun to tease Raku" Shu seemed to understand what I meant and at his turn also revealed that he was aware of the truth.
"WAIT? Even you??" Raku was shocked by his best friends betrayal who kept teasing him about his girlfriend while he knew the truth since the start and acted ignorant.
"So that's where this weird feeling came from huh." This time it was Ruri's turn to reveal her suspicions, she easily caught up on what we were trying to say earlier.
The only one who still looked clueless and had no idea whatsoever about what we were talking about was none other than Kosaki, the poor girl was looking around trying to find answers so I took this chance to explain the situation to her.
"Kosaki I believe Chitoge and Raku have something to tell you, it isn't my place to reveal their secret so I'll leave it to them."
The one to speak up and reveal the truth was none other than Chitoge.
"I'm sorry to have hidden this from you guys but yes, me and Raku aren't really dating, we have to fake it in order to make sure our respective families don't turn against each other, we'll have to do that until the end of high school" she said with an apologetic smile.
Kosaki was clearly shocked by this revelation, but a part of her still felt a bit of relief, maybe she still had a chance with Raku?
We continued to study for a bit but suddenly both Raku and Chitoge got asked to go pick up some expensive tea from the warehouse.
I didn't think much of it at first but a few minutes I remembered that scene from the anime, that's the time in which Raku and Chitoge got trapped in the warehouse. That's also the beginning of the romance between Raku and Chitoge.
Right after realizing that a notification accompanied my thoughts.
[Side quest:
Ruining the start of a relationship: (difficulty F/ duration 10 minutes)
Description:
Help Raku and Chitoge get out of the warehouse and ruin their romantic one on one moment.
Reward: 10 coins and a special title.]
This quest was the weirdest I've ever received until now. most quests were about helping the story advance or getting involved with protagonists or helping them but this time I'll be affecting their relationship and stopping their advance and the course of the story.
That made realize that I might've been wrong, the goal of the system which I thought was to make me help the story progress was instead just to get myself involved with their fate, whether it's against or with them is all up to me.
There's also that special title which sound very interesting, I have yet to have gained any title so I'm curious as to what that might be.
"Hey guys let's look for Raku and Chitoge I feel like they've been away for too long and we already studied almost everything."
They all agreed and we went out towards where Raku and Chitoge were headed.
"Hey is that the warehouse they were going to?" Ruri pointed towards a small warehouse which had the doors fully closed and I knew that was it.
[Only 3 minutes left before the automatic failure of the quest!]
I already wasted too much time looking for the warehouse so now I directly headed towards it and once in front of it I did think twice and simply opened the door.
Right when I opened the door a flying object flew right towards me and hit me in the stomach.
After looking down I noticed Chitoge hugging me with teary eyes in front of all our friends who were clearly very surprised by the turn of events.
I tried to pat her back to comfort her but I got interrupted by another notification from the system.
[Congratulations on completing the side quest "ruining the start of a relationship"!]
[Would you like to receive your reward?]
[Yes] [no]
Right as I was listening to the system notification I received a hard blow on the side of my stomach which sent me flying into the background.
"What the.." I could barely talk as my whole head was buzzing, I could feel the immense pain coming from my stomach.
I tried standing up in front of all of my shocked friends who didn't have any time to react because of how sudden this was, the blood running down the side of my mouth indicated that I obviously had some kind of internal damage from that hit.
"You fucking punk! What were you doing to our young lady!?" I heard an unknown voice which sounded extremely pissed.
The man who destroyed my stomach in one hit was none other than that psycho, Claude.
And he was clearly coming towards me to finish his work, I tried backing down but my whole head was still buzzing and my vision wasn't clear, I could barely stand up.
Luckily Chitoge got in his way and stopped him in time before he could get the chance to finish me off.
'That fucking psycho, I promise that I will make him pay.'
Adam did ask me to save humanity, but some humans deserved a bit of a beating. That's my role as the protector of humanity.
Though my resolve seemed laughable while looking at my current state, my whole body was messed up.
Right when I was thinking of what I should do to get out of this situation I saw the whole gang of yakuza coming out rushing towards us but without even noticing it my vision started getting blurry as I soon enough passed out.